INDUSTRYNEWS Italian joint venture established
SILFAB SPA and Espe Srl have combine defforts by founding Espe Sunparc Srl, a company that specializes in the development and installation of photovoltaic plants in Italy and abroad. Silfab Spa, a provider of PV products and services based in Italy, and Espe Srl, a company in the field of design, production and management of solar power plants, made this announcement after signing a joint venture agreement in Bosco (Padova, Italy).
The newborn company is already a qualified international EPC, which already in 2011 is predicting the development of solar plants for a total output of about 70 MW, 30% of these outside Italy, with an overall turnover of more than 100 million Euros. Although in Italy Espe Sunparc will focus on ground-mounted PV , the company will develop abroad a wide range of photovoltaic applications.
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Espe SunParc doesn’t just combine the know-how of the two companies, Silfab and Espe, with all their specialized technical knowledge, but also the unique experience of Franco Traverso, a pioneer in the solar PV sector in Italy for three decades. Traverso, currently serving as President and CEO of Silfab Spa, will hold the same position in the new company.
production of 15 MW in Romania. Other projects are already in their implementation stage in Ontario (Canada), while several others are expected to launch shortly in several other countries that have been earmarked by the new venture.
He will be assisted by Tiziano Meneghetti, President and CEO of Espe, who takes on the role of Vice-President of the newly formed company. The collaboration between Mr. Traverso and Mr. Menegetti dates back to the very beginning of solar industry in the 80s - when the first, leading-edge PV plants were installed in Italy - and is now officially sealed through the establishment of this new company.
Espe Sunparc has already initiated negotiations around supplies with major international modules manufacturers and other components providers in preparation for a tight program of initiatives in the months to come.
In Italy, the company is investing about 20 Million Euros in solar farms to be created in Sardinia, Apulia and Molise. Internationally, Espe has acquired the necessary authorizations for the
Lower cost solar power
42 TECHNOLOGY (42T) has worked with Circadian Solar’s engineers to develop a new generation of high efficiency solar collector modules, as well as system modelling techniques to help make solar power a true commercially-viable alternative energy source. Circadian Solar is one of Europe’s leading developers of concentrated photovoltaic technology (CPV).
The new modules are undergoing testing and field trials with the aim of delivering grid parity from large-scale solar farms in desert or sunbelt regions, without needing government or other subsidies: in others words, generating electricity at costs equal to or lower than the grid power produced from coal or gas-fuelled power stations.
42T’s engineering team, drawn from its own in-house resources as well as
specialists from its network of associates, worked closely with Circadian Solar’s technical experts to improve the energy- conversion efficiency and reliability of existing module designs. The combined team generated a number of new concepts, based on a Fresnel lens array, optics to optimise the solar performance and high technology photovoltaic cells, but also considered the manufacturing requirements to ensure the modules can be produced in high volume at low cost.
In addition, the combined team developed a mathematical model to take a total systems approach to the design and operation of large-scale farms. The model factors in all the inter-
dependencies, technical and operational challenges influencing the cost of energy produced throughout the lifetime of a farm such as: land use; tracking systems to maximise the light capture; servicing,
“Through the creation of Espe Sunparc, we consolidate a collaboration with Espe that has stood the test of time,” declares Franco Traverso, President of Silfab Spa. “This new venture allows us to integrate our experiences and converge in a single entity our know-how efficiently. I’m particularly proud to be able to play an active role in this new initiative that rounds off several years of work”.
“Today the photovoltaic sector consists of many actors and innumerable products” - comments Tiziano Meneghetti, President of Espe - “only a few of these, however, are able to guarantee the quality of their products, based on tangible experience from three decades of operating in this field. Espe Sunparc is born from almost forty years of combined experience between Espe and Silfab. Our main concern is the serenity of our customers, and through our reliable and durable high-yield solutions, we can guarantee they’ll feel satisfied”.
failures and degradation; and module concepts, materials and manufacture.
“42 Technology’s expertise has helped significantly shorten our product and system development timescales. By pooling our resources we are now much closer to producing a new generation of high efficiency, low cost solar collectors in volume and in developing large-scale farms offering potentially much lower energy costs than any of today’s current installations,” said Jeroen Haberland, CEO of Circadian Solar.
www.solar-pv-management.com Issue IV 2011
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